


they shall have stars at elbow and foot

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: Love and Other Fairytales [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (brief) - Freeform, (sort of), Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fae & Fairies, Gen, Harm to Animals, Harm to Children, Homophobia, Mind Control, because patton's fairy godmother is about to pull out the big guns, kind of downer ending but the series doesn't stay that way i promise, patton-centric, well she better be ready to be upstaged, which is also brief, you know that shitty fairy godmother in ella enchanted?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 14:31:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15776004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: Matthias Waller, unsure what else he can do, saves a fairy. Years later, he comes to regret it.Or, Patton grows up with a burden no child should have to bear.





	they shall have stars at elbow and foot

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from the poem And Death Shall Have No Dominion by Dylan Thomas

Four days before Christmas, Matty’s house ran out of firewood.

His father, Johnathan Waller, decided Matty, eleven and just old enough that the barest edges of puberty were starting to creep up on the lines of his face, was old enough to come with him to carry it from the woodshed to the garage.

Matty’s mom Elizabeth – who was maybe a smidge overprotective – forced him into his puffy red coat, snow pants, a hat, scarf, and gloves, even though the woodshed was only two minutes walk from the house, and only that long because there was two feet of snow on the ground. In the daylight in the winter, you could see it through the trees from the back porch.

But it  _was_  dark, and cold, and it made his mom happy so he let her fuss and then followed his father out the back door.

As they stepped into the tree line, Matty focusing on his father’s footprints and the ground in front of him, he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye.

He turned to look and only saw a little speck of light a ways off, bobbing slightly like someone carrying a lantern.

He shook his head, looking away from the will-o-wisp and turning back to his father’s footprints in front of him.

Except the footprints weren’t there.

He spun on his heel, but his house was out of sight too. He said a word he was sure his mother would have washed his mouth out with  _bleach_  for, let alone soap.

But getting pixie-led just by  _looking_  at a will-o-wisp? That was just  _unfair_.

He groaned, knowing his mom was never gonna so much as let him breathe in the direction of the woods again until he was thirty, and started the uncomfortably cold process of turning his coat inside out.

As he wrestled with the sleeves, he started looking around for anything useful – of course he didn’t put any iron in his pocket before leaving, he was walking like  _200 ft,_ this was  _ridiculous_  – he heard a soft noise.

He paused, heart picking up, wondering if he was maybe being a little  _too_  flippant, but the noise – crying? – sounded more  _afraid_  than it did  _frightening._

He should just finish turning his coat and try to find his way home. But the whimpering was so pitiful and sounded so close…

He hesitated only a moment longer, and then shook his head in defeat and followed the sound.

There was a tangle of brambles a dozen yards away, and as he drew closer he saw a mass of white fur inside. It didn’t look like any kind of animal he’d seen, sort of beaver-like hind legs and a dog face with wicked-looking teeth. It had blank white eyes, and even without iris’s or pupils he could tell it was watching him. It’s back leg was caught in a steel trap and Matty could hear it sizzling slightly.

He winced. It was probably a fox trap, and whoever set it (boy did he hope he wasn’t still on his dad’s property) was probably gonna be in some neck deep trouble if he set this thing loose.

But it had seen him now, so  _he_ was gonna be neck deep if he walked away.

It whined again, and something clenched in Matty’s chest.

Maybe if he freed it, it would be happy enough that it wouldn’t hurt anyone at all?

He spoke softly, little nonsense words he used on the goats when the were antsy, and moved slowly as he reached forwards and clicked the release on the trap.

The white thing dashed forward, the image of it rippling like a wet photograph, and then it twisted and stretched and became a woman.

He blinked and looked again.

Not  _quite_ a woman.

She was easily seven feet tall, taller than any person Matty had ever seen, with skin and hair the exact color of the snow around them and those same blank white eyes. She had on clothes – he thought. They seemed to be made of clouds or mist, and he wondered if they  _were_ magic clothes or if that was just what her body looked like.

She smiled, and her teeth hadn’t changed at all, still sharp and canine. Matty shivered.

“I will remember your kindness,” she said, her voice like rustling branches.

And then, between one blink and the next, she was gone.

“Matty!”

Matty whirled on his heel with a yelp, and there was his father, with his eyebrow raised and the woodshed right behind him.

“Are ya comin’ or not?”

“I-yes,” Matty stammered, rushing forward.

As he carried his armful of wood back to the house, he wondered what the fairy woman meant. Was she going to find him later?

Well, fairies had long lives and finicky priorities – maybe she’d just never get around to doing anything about it. And if she did, well, there wasn’t really anything he could do to stop her, was there?

Stacking the logs in his arms into the wood cupboard, Matty decided to put it out of his mind.

Years passed, and Matty grew up. He got good grades, and went to a good college. When he came back to Wickhills because his parents’ health was failing, he told himself it was because wanted to, and that it had nothing to do with how nobody ever managed to leave Wickhills for very long.

He met Shelly Stewart, who had been two years ahead of him and quiet as a mouse in school, who was a secretary for The Wickhills Community Tribune. He decided even if it was just Wickhills refusing to give him up, he didn’t mind if it meant he got to fall in love with that sweet smile.

They got married in the church he’d been raised in, and when his parents died two years later, he told himself he should just be grateful they got to see his wedding. He worked the farm, and loved his wife, and was grateful.

By the time he and Shelley had their own son, Patton, golden curls and hazel eyes, all smiles and giggling joy, Matthias had forgotten all about the fairy woman from his childhood

But  _she_  certainly hadn’t forgotten about  _him_.

* * *

“Mama, Papa, wa’ch me!” shouted Patton.

“We’re watching Patty,” said Shelley, though she was fibbing a little. She could see Patton out of the corner of her eye, but she and Matt both were more focused on getting the clothes up on the clothesline.

“Mama, I wanna go roll!”

“You can roll down the hill in a minute Patton, just let me finish these clothes and I’ll take you out front,”

“Mama, I wanna go roll  _now_ ,”

“I will take you to roll if you wish, little one,”

Shelley’s heart leapt into her mouth and she spun, dropping the sheet into the dirt. Beside her, Matt choked on the air.

A woman – a  _fey_ , no, no  _not Patty, not her boy, please –_ towering and pale, stood over Patton.

Patton turned around, startled. He looked back at his parents, and he must have seen the terror in their faces, because he took a step back.

But he was only four, and small besides, so he didn’t get far before the fey plucked him off the ground.

“Um,” said Patton, “I’m not s’pose to talk to strangers,”

“But I am not a stranger,” she said, smiling with mouth full of razor teeth, “I am your father’s friend, and your fairy godmother,”

Shelley snapped her head to look at Matt, to demand to know what she was talking about, but Matt looked just as horrified as she did.

“Oh…o-okay,” said Patton quietly.

The fey tilted her head. “You are now quiet, when before you were quite carefree. Are you afraid of me little one?”

“He’s shy!” Shelley blurted, “Just-just shy, he’s not used to- he doesn’t meet new people very often,”

The fey hummed and nodded. Her thoughtful expression was almost human. But then she grinned, showing her teeth.

“I have a gift for you, then, little one,”

Patton perked up, and Shelley didn’t know what to say – they couldn’t  _refuse_ , it wasn’t like they had a  _choice,_  but whatever it was could not possibly be good.

“Since you are shy, I shall give you a lovely and pleasing voice, so that everyone who hears it will be charmed,”

Patton smiled bigger, then turned to his parents, delighted.

“A present, Mama!”

“That is- very kind of you, Ma’am,” choked Shelley.

“Oh, I suppose,” she said, turning to look at them for the first time, “A sufficient gift for my friend, for his kindness, I hope? ”

“Y-yes,” Matt wheezed, the first words he’d spoken in the whole ordeal, “Yes, that’s – we – I  appreciate it,”

Shelley wanted to ask what in the  _hell_  they were talking about but she was afraid if she took her eyes of Patton for even a moment she’d never see him again.

“Wonderful,” she replied.

She reached forward with the hand that was not holding up Patton and pressed it to his neck.

When Patton screamed, Shelley sprinted forward, but by the time she reached him the fey was gone and Patton was laying on the ground.

When she picked him, the terror she felt had nothing to do with his cries, and everything to do with the pale white handprint spanning his entire throat.

* * *

After weeks, when there were almost no changes but the mark – not raised like a scar, or shiny like a burn, no sign that it should have hurt him at all but of course,  _of course_  it did, the Good Neighbors did nothing halfway – Matt slowly began to relax.

Patton could sing now, when before he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, more beautifully than any four-year-old had any business doing. He’d chanted his own lullaby back to his mother and nearly reduced her to tears.

But that seemed to be the only thing, and Matt wondered if they had dodged a bullet and actually received just a- well, just a gift, with no double edge and no catch, just a lovely voice for his son in payment for a kindness he’d nearly forgotten about anyway.

They were in the kitchen, Shelley and him moving around each other with the ease born of years of practice, with Patton playing quietly with his dolls a few feet away. He’d been subdued since the incident, but he was slowly coming back to himself.

“Mama?” he said.

“Yes, dear?” said Shelley, pouring a bowl of onion Matt had just minced into the saucepan.

“Gimme juice, please?”

Matt would never forget what happened next for as long as he lived.

Shelley instantly dropped the bowl, which bounced off the edge of the sauce pan and onto the floor, shattering on the tile and scattering onion everywhere.

She walked to the fridge mechanically, twitching almost like she was a marionette on strings.

“M-mama?” said Patton.

She ignored him, opening the fridge. The apple juice was towards the back, and she started grabbing things in front of it and throwing them to the floor.

“Mama, what are you doing?” said Patton, slightly hysterical.

“Shelley,” said Matt, trying to keep his voice level despite the fact that he was just as horrified as Patton clearly was, “Shelley, can you hear me?”

The tubs of leftovers and half empty jars just kept falling to the ground, until Shelley’s hand closed around the bottle of apple juice and she jerked around, and started walking towards Patton.

“Mama  _stop!_ ”

Shelley collapsed instantly.

“ _Shelley!”_

Matt skidded to his knees, flipping her over. Her eyes were closed and she was limp as a ragdoll.

She wasn’t breathing.

Matt was frozen, hands hovering uselessly, what was  _happening-_

“ _Papa what’s wrong with Mama!”_

“She- she’s just sleeping Patty,” he said, his voice coming from far away, and he still couldn’t get his hands to move, he need to do CPR or  _something_

Patton had come closer, tears running down his little round face, and threw his arms around his mother’s neck.

“Mama, you’re scaring me, please wake up!”

Shelleys eye shot open and she gasped like she’d come out from under water. She reached out and grabbed Patton, crushing him to her chest and sobbing.

Matt looked at the mark on Patton’s neck, wrapped his arms around his wife and son, and cried right along with her.

* * *

It was Patton’s first day of kindergarten, and he was so,  _so_  scared.

“Mama, I don’t want to,” he cried.

“Everything’s gonna be fine, Patty,” she said, and the smile was only a little strained, “You haven’t made a mistake in months, you’ve been doing so good. Do you remember the rule?”

Patton looked down the road in the direction bus was suppose to come from apprehensively.

“Always ask, never tell,” he recited.

“Can you give me an example?”

Patton thought for a moment.

“If i need to go to the bathroom, I should say ‘May I go to the bathroom?’”

“Very good! What if another child takes a toy from you?”

“I should… not get angry, and go tell the teacher. I should just say what they did, and not tell the teacher to do anything,”

“See, Patton? You can do it. I know you can,”

Patton considered, for just the tiniest moment,  _telling_  Mama to let him stay home.

But then he shuddered, remembering the way his parents twitched and jerked whenever he accidentally  _told_  them what to do, and felt horrible for even thinking it.

“Ok,” he said, “I love you,”

“I love you, too, sweetheart,”

Patton looked over her shoulder at the incoming bus and started fiddling with the cat charm dangling from the strap of his blue backpack.

He climbed on to the bus and sat in the very first seat that was empty, scooting all the way to the window and pressing his face to the glass. Mama waved at him and he forced a smile and waved back.

As the bus pulled away, he took a deep breath and plastered the nicest, friendliest smile on his face he could manage.

Scrunching down and whispering as quiet as he could so nobody could hear him, he  _told_ himself, “Be happy,”

_Telling_  didn’t work as well on himself as it did other people, but he did feel most of his worry fade to the back of his brain. Mama and Papa didn’t know he  _told_  himself to do things. He didn’t think they would like it, and sometimes it was the only way he could keep from crying.

As everybody filed off the bus and towards the school building, Patton looked around for Miss Lisa, the kindergarten teacher who he’d met at the orientation.

Then he saw her, she was wearing a pink blouse with a little pocket on the chest, and the pocket had a picture of a cat the looked like it was peeking out.

She had other kids standing near her, and some of them were already talking to each other. Patton hurried up closer to join them, but then paused.

What if he tried to talk someone and  _told_  them something on accident?

He looked back and forth between the other kids and Miss Lisa, then turned away from them to stand near her leg.

“Good morning Patton,”

“Good morning, ma’am,” he replied.

“Would you like to talk to the other kids?”

“No, thank you ma’am,”

She nodded, patting him on the shoulder. “Alright then. Maybe later,”

_Maybe never_ , thought Patton sadly.

* * *

The school day wasn’t as bad as Patton thought it was going to be. They had story time and learned about letters and met the class pet, a guinea pig named Daisy. When Miss Lisa took them outside for recess for the last half-hour before the buses came to get them, only couple people tried to play with him, but after several polite “no thank you’s” the other kids left him alone on the swings.

It wasn’t so bad – he liked to swing anyway. He tensed up when another boy came closer – what was his name? Martin? Mitchell? - But the other kid didn’t come near him, just started climbing on the balance beam nearby.

Patton let out a breath and continued to swing.

He’d done it. He’d gotten through the whole day.

He scratched at the neck of his collared shirt, buttoned up to hide the handprint at the base of his neck. He wanted to undo it, but he wasn’t very good at doing buttons and he didnt want to ask the teacher. Recess was probably almost over anyway, and then he could go home and ask Mama to do it.

Another class got released for recess, older kids Patton didn’t know. The first buses were starting to pull up and Patton figured if he went to wait by the door now it would be fine.

“Hey loser!”

Patton jerked his head up, but the older kid didn’t seem to be talking to him. He and another boy gone up to the other kindergartener on the balance beam with a sneer.

“What’s your name, tiny?”

The other boy hesitated before answering. “M’names Mickey Talbot. What’s yours?”

The older kid stuck his chin out.

“I’m Chad. So,  _Mickey_ , don’t you know balance beam is for girls and ballerinas? What do you think you’re doing?”

Mickey tilted his head, screwing up his face in concentration.

“Well, I like dancing. Maybe I’ll be a ballerina,”

The older kid laughed, but Patton didn’t think he’d ever heard someone laugh quite like that, mean and kind of slimy.

“Here that Robbie, he says he’s a  _ballerina_ ,”

The other kid – Robbie – laughed in that same unpleasant way.

Mickey seemed to be getting angry. “Well, what’s wrong with ballerinas?” he said.

“What do you mean, ‘ _what’s wrong with ballerinas?’_ Are you gay or something?” Said Robbie, shoving Mickey off of the balance beam.

“Hey!” exclaimed Mickey. “You’re mean! Go away!”

“‘ _you’re mean, go away,’”_ Chad mocked back.

Patton was running forward and words were bubbling up in his throat before he could stop them.

“ _Hey!”_

The older boys looked up, and Robbie raised his eyebrows.

“What, pipsqueak?”

Patton’s heart was hammering, and he thought very carefully about what he could say. He looked between them and Mickey on the ground.

“You’re… you’re not being nice,”

“Ha!” Chad barked. “So what? What are you gonna do about it?”

Good question. What  _was_  Patton going to do about it?

He couldn’t let them hurt Mickey but… he couldn’t  _tell_ them not to. That would be wrong. But was it better to let them be mean? He looked out of the corner of his eye at the recess moniter, all the way on the other side of the playground.

But while he was looking away, he didn’t see Chad come closer until he closed his fist around Patton’s collar.

Patton panicked.

“ _Let go of me!”_

Chad dropped him.

Patton slapped his hands over his mouth and Chad looked down at his own hands in astonishment.

“What the-?”

“I’m sorry!” Patton cried.

Chad’s expression turned from confusion to rage. “What did you just do to me!?”

“I- I didn’t mean to!”

Chad lunged for him and Patton tripped, falling on his back in his haste to scramble away. Chad grabbed for his collar again and Patton heard a tearing noise.

“What’s on your neck you freak?”

“Nothing!”

“Is that a handprint?”

“Don’t touch me!”

Chad jerked back again like he’d been burned. He kept reaching forward but his hands almost seemed to come up on a wall each time he got close, and his eyes would glaze over as he jerked out of arm’s reach.

“Come  _on_ , Chad, just leave them, the kids got  _magic_ ,” said Robbie, pulling on Chad’s arm and dragging him away. Chad gave Patton one last hateful look before following him.

Patton took a deep, shaky breath, covering his mouth to keep any sobs from coming out. He climbed to his feet and turned to look at Mickey, opening his mouth to ask if he was okay.

But Mickey…

Mickey looked so  _scared._

“I-” started Patton, taking a hesitant step forward.

“What was  _that_!” Mickey shouted, trembling. “What kinda freaky magic is that?”

“I just-” said Patton. “I have- I’ve got a Fairy Godmother. My voice is magic,”

“But what did you  _do?_ ”

Patton shuffled his feet hesitantly. His parents hadn’t  _said_  it was supposed to secret, and maybe if Patton explained Mickey would be less scared?

“When I- if i  _tell_  people to do something, they do it. It’s- I don’t do it on purpose  _ever_ , it just- sometimes I do it on accident,”

“Oh,” said Mickey

The bell rang and both of them looked up to where everyone was moving towards the school doors.

“Um- thanks for getting them to leave me alone, I guess,”

“Oh!” said Patton, who had almost forgotten in the ensuing chaos that they had been bothering Mickey to begin with. “You’re welcome,”

Mickey nodded, rushing past Patton and making his way to the entrance.

“Um, Mickey?”

“Yeah?”

“Do- do you want to sit with me on the bus?”

Mickey looked back at him hesitantly.

“If i say no, will you make me do it anyway?”

Pattons stomach twisted.

“ _No!_  Of course not!”

Mickey shifted his weight.

“Okay then I- um- I don’t really want to,”

Patton plastered a smile on his face, nodding quickly to hide the fact that his eyes were filling with tears. “Okay then. I hope- I hope you have a nice day!”

Mickey relaxed, nodded once more, and ran the rest of the way to the school building.

Patton kept nodding even after Mickey had turned away, biting the inside of his cheek to keep his lip from wobbling.

“Okay,” he said miserably. He took a deep breath.

“Be happy,” he whispered.

And all the way from the playground to the classroom, onto the bus and into Mama’s open arms, the smile never left his face.

**Author's Note:**

> come talk about sanders sides with me at tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors.tumblr.com

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] they shall have stars at elbow and foot](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18291110) by [GoLBPodfics (GodOfLaundryBaskets)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GodOfLaundryBaskets/pseuds/GoLBPodfics)




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